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Drought Plaguing Texas Has Eased

HOUSTON (AP) – The browning of Texas has slowed over the past few months as near normal spring and summer rainfall has eased the grip of a persistent drought, especially in the eastern half of the state.

State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon tells the Houston Chronicle that drought conditions have actually ended in most of East and Southeast Texas. The western half of the state remains in drought, however.

The drought peaked in early October 2011, when the U.S. Drought Monitor showed 99 percent of the state in severe drought or worse. Nielsen-Gammon says the 2011 drought was the most intense one-year drought Texas had experienced since at least 1895.

Today, about 20 percent of the state is in severe drought or worse, while 47 percent is in at least a “moderate” drought.